National consolidator GlobalTranz buys Eagan-based logistics firm Cerasis

Cerasis, a privately held company in Eagan with about $150 million in revenue and 119 employees, has been acquired by GlobalTranz Enterprises, a national transportation-management company for truckers and other shippers that is an industry consolidator.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sima Griffith of Aethlon Capital, the adviser to Cerasis, said the three owners of Cerasis and their employees are expected to continue with GlobalTranz. GlobalTranz has a regional operations center in downtown Minneapolis.

"Since founding our business in 1997, Cerasis has helped customers understand fragmented shipping data to manage costs and make logistics a strategic weapon," said Steve Ludvigson, president and CEO of Cerasis. "Combining with GlobalTranz allows us to continue this history while providing our customers with increased service offerings and access to capacity."

GlobalTranz, a private-equity-backed industry consolidator that has doubled in size since 2017, said it is one of the 10 largest freight-brokerage companies in America, with revenue approaching $2 billion.

CEO Renee Krug of GlobalTranz said in a prepared statement: "Cerasis has a strong history of providing its customers with solutions that help create competitive advantages.

"Cerasis will help expand GlobalTranz's growing managed transportation capabilities. The talented Cerasis team combined with the talented team of agents and employees at GlobalTranz will drive increased differentiation and accelerate growth of our solutions in the marketplace."

Cerasis is GlobalTranz's 11th acquisition since January 2017.

Cerasis describes itself as a technology-enabled, third-party logistics company that provides services and solutions through its proprietary transportation management system and serves 700-plus customers in North America.

Phoenix-based GlobalTranz provides a cloud-based, multimodal transportation management system to shippers, carriers and brokers.

GlobalTranz, leveraging an independent agent network, has a customer base of more than 1 million users.

Neal St. Anthony • 612-673-7144